Clinical spectrum and prevalence of abnormal uterine bleeding in a tertiary care hospital

Abstract

Background Abnormal uterine bleeding (AUB) is one of the most common complaint among women presenting to the Gynaecology department. It is a debilitating condition with high direct and indirect costs especially in developing countries. The purpose of this study was to describe the prevalence and clinical spectrum of AUB in Indian population. Material and methods A prospective cross-sectional study was done on 6,139 women presenting with the complaints of abnormal uterine bleeding to the Gynaecology outpatient department of Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow from 1st August, 2019 to 31st July 2020. FIGO-AUB system was used for terminologies and definitions of symptoms of AUB. Results The prevalence of AUB was found to be 36% .Overall prevalence of structural and non-structural causes in our hospital was 65.61% and 34.38%. AUB-O was the most frequent finding in women, accounting for 1712(27.88%) cases. AUB-L was found in 1507(24.54%) women, AUB-A in 997(16.24%) women, AUB-M in 961(15.65%) women, AUB-P in 563(9.1%) women, AUB-E in 167(2.72%) women, AUB-I in 144(2.34%) women, AUB-C in 85(1.38%) women, and AUB-N in 3(0.0005%) women. The most common menstrual pattern were prolonged, irregular and heavy menstrual bleeding seen in 63.45%, 59.32% and 59.89% women respectively. Highest prevalence of AUB(49.88%) was seen in >40 years of age. Conclusion Ovulatory dysfunction was the most common cause followed by uterine leiomyoma, uterine adenomyosis and uterine polyp. Prolonged, irregular and heavy menstrual bleeding was the most common pattern and AUB was most commonly seen in late reproductive years.